Warning: This is one of those hypocritical posts in which I possibly contradict my whole existence. How many times can you tell people how hard an expedition was? What you had to endure, overcome and outlast? Throw in the requisite tanned, shirtless, bearded explorer photo (or wrapped up in polar gear, hidden behind reflective goggles lenses and icicles hanging from beard if you like) along with images of inhospitable terrain and there you go. How f**king boring that has become. Yeesh! I bore myself with that crap!
Bit harsh perhaps? For hundreds of years, explorers and adventurers have returned from their exotic journeys, recounting stories to eager audiences, all hungry for tales of derring-do. A large part of my days are taken up doing just this and ok these stories are not always boring I suppose. I love it, but...there should be more. There has to be more. Fortunately, there is.
In this little world I inhabit (adventure? exploration? expedition?) a small revolution is taking place. In fact, a couple of my mates are on the front line (there are for sure more leading the charge). I was fortunate enough to attend a private screening recently of a film called by my friend Tom Allen. He is the star of the film and mostly on camera he rides a bike across Europe, Central Asia and Africa. But, the film has almost nothing to do with cycling and certainly sod all to do with expeditions. It tells a story far more interesting and enthralling than punctures, headwinds and long, straight roads. It tells a story about life.
Al Humphreys just wrote a book called, , ostensibly about his walk in India following the course of the holy Kaveri River. Al, who has written a good few books about his travels already could have taken the easy route and produced what would have basically been an edited version of his journal. Straight forward, simple and go...sell! Not this time. Al has published a book that tells the story of the walk through an account of a single day. Does it work? Who cares! It is different, it is new. It is interesting! Which I guess means, yes, it does work.
In May, I will paddle the length of the Missouri-Mississippi River in the US. Over the course of 4000 miles and 5 months you can bet things will get boring fast if I tell people about the headwinds, the river flow, the aches and pains day after day. Again, fortunately that is not the plan. With the help of a couple of talented individuals, I, like Al and Tom am having a crack at something new, something different. Using the expedition as a vehicle to bring other people's stories to life. Having the expedition as a bit player, rather than the star of the show is how I see the future, my future.
I might get it wrong. It may not work. I might fail spectacularly. But at least it will be fun trying something new, something exciting. What do you think? Do you still dig tales of heroism and beards? Or, do you think there might be more to it?
No not bored with these tales at all. I came along to listen to your adventures earlier this year in Wales and was hooked so very much looking forward to your next installment but it sounds like we will have to wait until you have finished as you said no up dates on FB or twitter
Bang On!
Expeditions- trite, “never give up”, “reach for the skies”, “you can do it”, “impossible is nothing” platitudes- are boring.
On the other hand; Explorations- curious, honest excavations of “man and the world”- are engaging.
At some point exploration got confused with athletic/logistic/pr accomplishment! Past expeditions were interesting because they told stories and opened windows on the world. Many of today’s high profile journeys tell us stories about reductive pyschology, a fetish for technology, and corporate synergies rather than experiences, epiphanies, and encounters with the world in all its beautiful complexity.
In these, sponsorship hungry, soundbyte determined, times expedition stories are too often boiled down and boring tales told by brash single minded over-achievers shaped more by corporate speak than the genuine findings of curious explorers.
Expeditions should be anything but boring. We’ve always loved a good story about an arduous journey, and have always used these stories as vehicles for deeper messages; you just have to look at Dreamtime, the Odyssey, The Travels of Marco Polo, The Voyage of the Beagle, South, The Road to Damascus et cetera to see the ars longa of engaging journeys.
Expeditions have an enormous potential to engage… with peoples and places, and with the pertinent political and philosophical issues of our times. If they’re becoming un-engaging, perhaps its because they’re disconnected with those themes, perhaps its the adventure industry that produces them that’s to blame, perhaps the incentive system is skewed; fame and remuneration usually goes to the longest highest fastest or most famous rather than the most sensitive or most inquisitive.
This video also touches on some of these themes; Ben’s comment below it also worth reading;
Well said Mark (and Ferg).
I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t really enjoy reading stories of crazy endurance and daring adventure (with the occasional beard thrown in too). However, telling a story with a primary focus on the surroundings, the history and the people adds a nice new dimension to the expedition.
Holy heck Ferg! Your comment provided a far more eloquent explanation of what was in my head than I could ever hope to put into words. Thanks! Agree wholeheartedly.
John and Jeet – I definitely still love tales of adventure. How can you beat for instance the stories that are going to come out of the Russian’s upcoming winter ascent of K2? Yeesh! But I suppose, as Ferg mentioned, expeditions seem to be becoming far too sterilised (even if that is not the experience of the explorer/adventure themselves who are after all immersed in the experience).
On top of that, putting yourself through some hardship on expedition I think is necessary in order to produce a certain feel to the stories that are brought back. Otherwise you could just front up in a bus/car/taxi/plane or whatever and get the story. Now that would be boring!
These are mostly views of an arm-chair expeditionist but…
Of course expedition are not boring! Far from it. But they can be presented in very boring fashion. I like all the little technical bits and details about gearn, weather, etc. but majority probably doesn’t find them interesting and if you want to present your adventure for the masses… rather tell a personal story. (Another good example, but only in Finnish atm, is Petri Mäkelä’s & Petri Vuorenmaa’s book about skiing and kite skiing three months along the Greenland. Instead of a chronological trip report, it’s loosely chronological story about inside their heads.)
But I think that there is also room for the detailled stuff and beards with icicles and that’s in the daily updates of expeditions that are nowdays more a rule than exception. People are probably interested what is happening to you Right Now but later, they are probably not that interested to hear all the hardships you had to face… And in this way, you have also novel content to share with your audience all the time.
Your words really resonates with my own thoughts of lately, Mark. These days we are drowning in accounts of heroic performances and that’s all very well. But I guess it all boils down to the storytelling whether I’m going to bother using my time reading, watching or listening. Take John Waterman’s book Arctic Crossing – if it was solely about the hardship and pain, not too many would probably care. Instead he takes us along on a rich and vivid account of Arctic culture.
And if the heroic performance is all there is, well, then the storytelling has to be really good. I’d love to see more genuine humour, cheerfulness, and, above all, self-irony in the world of expeditions, but I guess that conflicts with the badass stereotype.
It’s not like you’re gonna die or anything….. x